Things I Should Be Able To Do

There are certain things that people just expect you to be able to do, like tell your left from your right, do basic arithmetic mentally, or navigate with a map. Well I can't do any of those things. It's not from lack of effort. I've tried a million mnemonic devices to try to tell which one is my left and which one is my right. But I still have to think about it. When I'm driving someone will say turn left and it's three seconds before it connects and I know which way to turn.

I also cannot do simple arithmetic in my head. I got a 97% on a geometry test once because I said that 6-1=4. Of course that was part of a much larger problem (I was determining what type of quadrilateral it was.) One would think that somewhere before I got to Trig I would have learned how to do that. I've gotten so that I can add most single digits, but when you start throwing in numbers over nine, I face a quandary of gigantic proportions. Usually I just get out my calculator (I love that thing!)

As for navigating, I've inherited all those skills (or lack of skills) directly from my mom. If you've ever been in a car with her, you know what I'm talking about. We get lost going to places we've been hundreds of times. Even if I have a map, I get lost. It's a curse. It's all my mom's fault.

Seminary

My mom commented the other day that it was a miracle that we (Sarah, Nick, and I) were all still alive. After dropping off Anna at the middle school, she sees us driving back from seminary on our way to the high school. I sit in the front seat with the seat reclined all the way back. Nick is usually lying down in the back seat and is also asleep. Sarah is hunched down in the driver's seat, so that you can only see her eyeballs peeking out over the steering wheel. It was decided that it is the blessings of seminary that keeps us all alive each morning.

Our seminary teacher is Brother Frame. He's a lawyer. He goes so in depth into everything that I don't think we will finish the New Testament. We're in 1st Corinthians right now, but that's only because we skipped half of Luke and all of John. We convinced him that they were like re-runs of Matthew and Mark. For the last two years he has been pretty lenient with attendance. So lenient, in fact, people who never once came got credit for the year. We have since corrected his ways and he now has nothing to do with attendance. Our secretary records it and Brother Frame's wife inputs it into the computer.

For half the year Nick, Sarah, and I enjoyed being half the class. If we couldn't be there, the class was cancelled. Our parents ask who was there everyday, and we answer everyone except whoever wasn't there. It sounds like more people than there really are. Fortunately, another family with two more high school students moved in bringing our total number to eight.

The Joys of Driving

One of the things you look forward to when you're a little beehive is turning sixteen. That's the age that everything happens. You're in high school, you can date, and you get to drive. Well, last winter I finally made it. I turned sixteen. I don't really like high school and I don't go on dates. So I guess that leaves driving as my enjoyment as a sixteen year old. Unfortunately you can't just go down to the DMV and get it. You have to have a form saying that you attend school and aren't a truant. That takes forever to get. First, you have to go to the office and fill out said form. Then you put it in a little tray and wait. And wait. And wait. I turned one in before I turned 16 and got it back at the end of January. Unfortunately, it was signed before Christmas so it expired before I could go to the DMV. I turned another one in at the beginning of February. I got it back today, the beginning of March. I have until April to go and take the driving test. I hope that I don't fail.

Parallel parking is perhaps one of the most feared parts of the driving test. I learned how to do that today. It was one of the more obscure things I have ever done. I drove around, with my mom in the front seat of course, and parked behind cars that happened to be parked in the road. People stared. It was kind of weird to watch someone pull in and out from behind a car over and over. And then drive off as if nothing happened. We parallel parked behind every car in the neighborhood, several times. It was fun. I can now successfully parallel park. So watch out world, or at least West Virginia, 'cause here I come.

Pi

So, I don't know if you all realize this or not, but Pi Day is coming up. It's next Saturaday (March 14, 3/14, 3.14). I hope you all have your parties planned and are making pies and the works. Every year our school has a contest on Pi Day to see who knows the most numbers of pi. Last year someone got to 280 numbers past the decimal. I decided that to prove myself as a math nerd, I would beat that and get 300. I started yesterday. I was going to do fifty a day until I got to 300. I had fifty numbers in my calculator (it is an awesome calculator!). I memorized those during trig class. I wrote it down and recited it a million times. Thoughout the day I cemented it into my memory. I wasn't going to forget those numbers. Today I woke up and printed off about 780 numbers just because that was what was on the screen. I started memorizing. I got all the way to a hundred places past the decimal when it hit me. I wasn't going to be at school the Friday before Pi Day, which was when the competition was. I couldn't compete. I was memorizing the numbers for nothing. What can you possibly do with a hundred numbers of pi? You never need more than 5 at the most. So I figured that posting pi on my blog would have to suffice. Rest assured that this number is coming straight from my memory. Well, here goes-

3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693993751058209749445923078164062862089986280348253421170679

I hope you all celebrate Pi Day next Saturday.

Track and What Time is it?

Hi. I'm Anna a.k.a. Tweedledum. My school has been having Track and Field try-outs and I'm trying-out. My friend is trying-out too and yesterday when we were running a 1600m (for those who don't know that's 1 mile) and asks me what time it is. Later when we were doing something else she asks me what time it is. Today when we got done with a 600m she asked me what time it is, and it was 4:44. So I told her it was 4:44 and to make a wish. "I wish we didn't have to run anymore." What was weird was we didn't have to run anymore! The boys had to run their last 400m and the girls just got to sit and waited.
Push-ups stink more than running (figuratively and liberally.) The couch told us to do ten push-ups and once we did that he has us do one more because of our excessive giggling. We giggled at that and he kept having us do more.
So don't giggle and make a wish at 4:44 if you ever try-out for track.